Our Time Has Come

Chapter One

I lazily awoke to the soft ticking of the small timer on my wrist. I sat up and winced, gently putting pressure on the swollen area of flesh where the polyurethane strip was applied. I slid out of bed and onto the floor, studying the clear plastic timer that was put on my inner wrist yesterday; my seventeenth birthday. The time on it still baffled me.

00y 00m 00w 01d 15h 03m 41s

No one in the history of the Republic of Alvernia has ever gotten a timer that low. No one has ever been told that they'd meet their soulmate two days after they find out they actually have one. The notion absolutely terrified me. Mum told me not to be worried, and that the "lucky person" - whoever they may be - can come live with us until we're both legal. Even so, I was still scared. I never thought I'd be the kind of girl to even get a boyfriend, let alone a soulmate.

Eventually, I forced myself out of bed so I could go downstairs for breakfast. "Mornin', Mum," I said as I walked into the kitchen. "Good morning, Arryn," she chirped. "How's your wrist?"

"Still sore," I mumbled, smiling at her weakly as I opened the fridge to grab a slice of leftover pizza. I hummed quietly as I sat down and ate, staring at the table. "What if it's wrong?" I asked. "What?!" My mother looked up at me in shock, dropping the pen she was using. "What if the timer's wrong?"

"Arryn Leigh Morrison do not ask that!" she yelled. "Why not? Yours was wrong!"

"Mine was not wrong; your father was an ass!" I glared at her and stood up, speaking in a low voice. "He was the best father a girl could ever ask for. You just held your dislike for the timers against him and never really loved him." It was true. She racked up so much debt planning her marriage to a man she didn't believe was her soulmate. She stared at me for a moment longer before I walked out of the kitchen and out to my car, still in my pajamas.

I drove around the development for about half an hour until I decided to go to my friend Finn's house. When I got there, I walked right inside. "Would you like am?" I called as I jogged upstairs and into his room. "Or fm?" he giggled as he walked out of his bathroom, rubbing his hair with a towel. He looked me over and stopped at my wrist. "You got it?"

"Indeed I did." I grinned. "When?" he rushed over and picked up my wrist, examining it closer. "Yesterday. Hurt like hell!" she stared at it for a few minutes before grinning.

"Oh my god, only nineteen hours!! You're so lucky! I still have 2 years..."

"Nineteen? I have a whole day..." I looked down at the timer on my wrist to see that it had changed.

00y 00m 00w 00d 19h 02m 36s

"Huh, well I guess that's cool. You get to meet her early!" I smacked him in the arm and laughed. "What makes you think it's gonna be a girl?"

"There is no way you're not a lesbian."

"Oh my god Finn shut up!" By now we were both laughing, him on the floor and me on his bed.

Ba-DING!

I looked down at my phone to see a text from my mother. "Hey, Finny, I gotta go. Mum needs me back home."

"Aw, no fair!" He pouted and sat up, looking at me. "Sorry, dude. What mamma says, goes." I got up and grabbed my keys, walking to his door. "I'll see you at school?"

"You know it. Love you!"

"You too!!" I ran out to my car and got in, pulling out of his driveway and going home. The entire time, I could only think of one thing. My timer.